Course observations question

[kaysixteen]

The librarians are MLSs, and they know, or should know, what is meant by this assignment.  They do it everyday, and teach kids to do so.  It literally never crossed my mind when I cut and pasted this assignment from the prior prof to elaborate on the 'source selection' nature of the thing, especially since the assignment comes right after several days lectures and work on critical thinking skills, propaganda recognition and evaluation, etc.  I still know I am right to expect the librarians to know how to get the kids appropriate articles, especially since they've almost certainly seen this very assignment before, but what I have done is vastly overestimated the current capabilities of my students.  I will have to figure out how to better evaluate and then accommodate this reality.

[flyingbison]

That said, 'source selection' is a pretty standard topic MLS students deal with in reference librarian and bibliographic instruction classes,

Your students are not MLS students.  Like Hegemony, I have no idea what a "source selection" is in this context.

Googling the term brings up a lot of hits related to procurement for government contracts, as I'm accustomed to using the term.  Even adding "MLS" or "reference librarian" doesn't turn up something different in the first few hits.  Are you really making your study skills students get articles on government procurement processes?

In this context, I'm pretty sure "source selection" refers to how students should identify credible, relevant sources of information for researching a topic.  (If I'm wrong then, yes, I can see why the librarian would have been confused.)

[apl68]

I think librarians, and anyone, benefit from more information rather than less.  I myself have no idea what "source selection" is.  Of course I'm not a librarian, but I can also imagine that they deal with different faculty members having very different ideas of what the phrase might mean (some of them correct, some of them less so).  So the librarian probably asked the student, "What exactly does your professor mean? What kind of article are you looking for?" And the student said, "I have no idea."  So the librarian made a guess, maybe based on some other prof who had an assignment with a similar title, maybe on who knows what.  And obviously didn't guess correctly.  Rather than trying to figure out who to assign blame to, I think the best way forward is probably to make things very very clear when you can.  And of course to dump this assignment in the future.

The librarian was trying to conduct a reference interview, asking the student questions to clarify the assignment.  The student, not understanding the assignment or what was wanted, and probably unable even to make a fair guess, couldn't give the librarian anything to go on.  The librarian tried to wing it.  We're not mind readers--hence the need to attempt a reference interview.  Maybe the assignment started out as something familiar from library school, but when dealing with students who aren't familiar with academic jargon, and are starting from less than square one in learning how to use the library, there are all kinds of ways for things to get lost in translation.

[kaysixteen]

I told the students to bring the syllabus with them to show the librarian.  And there are 9 students in the class.  And this is a recycled assignment that the staff librarians have almost certainly seen before.  IOW, there was no need for the librarians to have to intuit what I wanted by conducting a blind reference interview.  If I had the time, I'd have trooped the kids over to the library and done this myself, but they're ft staffers eho have the time, not adjuncts who need to jump in the car to go work their retail job. 

Of course, it dawned on me today that there may well be 'librarians' manning the ref desk there who are paraprofessionals lacking the MLS. 

[kaysixteen]

Flyingbison is absolutely right, and any qualified librarian would know this.  It literally forms a substantial part of their education, and they do it professionally on a regular basis.

[Hegemony]

Maybe it is time to talk to the librarian directly, instead of trying to guess where things went wrong.

[apl68]

Maybe it is time to talk to the librarian directly, instead of trying to guess where things went wrong.

That would be a great idea!  There's some kind of misunderstanding here that needs to be settled.  I saw a number of such misunderstandings in my university library days.  We were glad to talk to an instructor to get things cleared up.  It usually helped a lot.  It also helps to remember, as one of my colleagues there used to say, that "people usually aren't trying be be stupid."

As kay notes above, it's possible the student never even got as far as an actual librarian.  To a lot of people anybody they see working at a library is a "librarian," and that's very much not the case.  In extreme cases the "librarian" might even have been a student assistant warm body.

[kaysixteen]

It was explained to me by my supervisor that the former professor eho came up with the assignment meant something entirely different by it, and the campus librarians were used to her interpretation.  I read the cut and pasted assignment on 'source selection' as an assignment to get and article on how to discern propaganda, fake news, etc., vs sound sources, whereas apparently she had meant that every kid would get an article on a specific controversial issue, such as abortion, gun control, etc., and then vet that article based on what they'd learned in class about source selection.  Hence the real disconnect.  The prior prof also assigned5 the articles to the kids herself.  Problem was none of this was on the prior syllabus.  Ah well.  I like my take on the assignment better, myself.  But i showed kids how to find articles on the fake news discernment topic, and then, from a good uni library's website article listing articles on this topic, chose one for each kid myself.  This was an excellent website which was the first hit I got on the "discerning fake news" Google search, from Cal St U's library.  I am thus guardedly optimistic  that the presentations will go well, though I'm going to take my supervisor's advice and email class a 'scaffold' 4 step direction for how to do said 10 minute presentation.

[polly_mer]

I am thus guardedly optimistic  that the presentations will go well, though I'm going to take my supervisor's advice and email class a 'scaffold' 4 step direction for how to do said 10 minute presentation.

Why is this an email instead of part of the lecture with demonstrations on how to do each step? 

Again, this looks a lot like assuming the students already have the skills that are supposed to be taught in the class.  I bet 500 quatloos that the presentations will not go well because these students need much more guidance and feedback on their presentations than a written handout to follow.

I was in a communications workshop recently with practicing professionals (i.e., everyone had a bachelor's degree, if not graduate degrees in their respective fields) and the first presentations following the distributed written scaffold were pretty painful to watch.  The presentations at the end of the week after all the feedback and polishing were much less painful to watch, but some people never got up to successfully following all four steps on the handout as well as the guidance to speak loudly at a reasonable speed with hands doing something useful or at least non-distracting.

[mamselle]

I had to laugh....the 'hands doing something non-distracting' immediately brought to mind a member of our second-grade class (not Hiram Elam)* who used to stand up to give a book report at the front of the class, fiddling with his glasses (to keep them up on his nose) and his zipper (presumably to be sure it was already up, too...) in an almost hypnotically repetitive rhythm...glasses....zipper/zipper/zipper... glasses.....zipper....for the whole length of time it took to deliver his usually very well-written, well-thought-out report.

We were in a small school system, and many of the same kids ended up in the same one or two classes each year, so I know this continued at least up through the beginning of junior high school (i.e., 7th grade...."middle school" was still a gleam in some educational administration theorist's eye, then...).

He must have gotten over it at some point, because I'm pretty sure he doesn't testify on his research to the Department of Energy while adjusting his eyewear and checking his fly every three seconds anymore...

M.

* interthreadual reference....

[polly_mer]

He must have gotten over it at some point, because I'm pretty sure he doesn't testify on his research to the Department of Energy while adjusting his eyewear and checking his fly every three seconds anymore...

M.

You might be surprised to watch some of those presentations.  There's good reason behind the regularly offered communication workshops for people who must make those presentations.  The extensive feedback and dry runs sometimes last for weeks before the actual presentation to fix some of those presentation problems by well-established scientists.

[mamselle]

Oh, dear!

I'll re-phrase that.

"I hope he's gotten over adjusting this glasses and checking his fly every three seconds..."

M.

[kaysixteen]

I'll see your 500 quatloos and raise you 500 more.

This is not a communications class, andnthe point of this very minor 2.5 percent of the term grade is not to teach or evaluate public speaking or other public presentation skills.  It is to learn about source selection and evaluation skills, and have the students each read a different article on some aspect of this subject, having them then give short summations of them and then lead the class, with me as facilitator, in further discussion on said articles.  The 4 points I told the kids in an email to spend those ten minutes on are simple: 1. Give a summary of the article, 2. Tell us the article's strongest point, and why, in your opinion, 3. Do the same for its weakest point 4. Recommend when we should use the stuff in the article.  This is a very basic assignment I'd have had no qualms about assigning to an 11th grader.

One more point, the class observation by my supervisor went pretty well, and our follow-up conversation was generally profitable.  Otoh, where, in my opinion, it broke down somewhat was when she noted (what i had already told her about via email), that some of the kids went onto their phones.  I told her point blank that this has been a longstanding issue and asked for her advice.  She told me that i was talking too much during the class and as a result did not engage the students enough, thereby inducing boredom in some that they alleviated with phones.  She even added that the students needed to get out of their seats....?  I confess I am less impressed with this aspect of her analysis....thoughts?

[Hegemony]

Well, no phones are allowed in any class of mine, so I am not sure why you are allowing them in yours.  But if I had no officially banned them, any time someone was on their phone, I would immediately call upon them to answer a question on whatever I was talking about at the moment.  "Your resume should not just be a list of job descriptions, but under each job you should list your important achievements.  Derek [who is on his phone], why would you think it would be more effective to list achievements?" And so on.

I don't hold with the idea that if you just make class interesting enough, they won't get on their phones.  Companies have spent millions of dollars making phones and the internet addictive; no class on some required subject is going to outshine that.  That's why it's important to hold the line and to show them that classes are not a place for phones.  I confess I am baffled as to why you would allow them — Rule No. 1 of Effective Teaching 101 is "No phones."

[polly_mer]

Nothing you've reported so far indicates your students are at a readiness level of 11th grade.  I am sad that I'll be on travel out of electronic contact for much of this week and will have to wait until Saturday to collect those quatloos.

One more point, the class observation by my supervisor went pretty well, and our follow-up conversation was generally profitable.  Otoh, where, in my opinion, it broke down somewhat was when she noted (what i had already told her about via email), that some of the kids went onto their phones.  I told her point blank that this has been a longstanding issue and asked for her advice.  She told me that i was talking too much during the class and as a result did not engage the students enough, thereby inducing boredom in some that they alleviated with phones.  She even added that the students needed to get out of their seats....?  I confess I am less impressed with this aspect of her analysis....thoughts?

As Hegemony wrote, Rule No. 1 of Effective Teaching 101 is "No phones."  It's on you to control your classroom in that aspect.  You can decide whether you're the hard-ass who has a basket upfront to collect phones as people come in (works fine for classes of under 20ish), the clown who makes a big deal at the beginning of every class with "Pull out your phone.  Turn it off.  Put it in a bag, pocket, or under your desk" and watches to ensure everyone does it, or takes a tactic like Hegemony recommends in which you call someone out every time you see one. 

A huge lecture hall is much harder to police.  A class of 20 or under that has students regularly on the phone means the instructor is not controlling the class.

The feedback on talking too much and getting students out of their seats seems to indicate an expectation of doing some more interactive techniques.  One easy technique to promote discussion is to have students stand, designate one wall as strongly agree, designate the opposite wall as strongly disagree, ask an opinion question, and have students physically move to indicate their opinion.  Call upon people at various points on the spectrum to have them explain.  If no one ends up in one category, then have the person with the strongest opposite opinion explain why someone might be in the unrepresented category.  Allow people to "use a lifeline or phone a friend" if they are stumped.

Think-pair-share coupled with making people move to their partners/trios helps promote more participation (it's pretty hard to get out of sharing in a group of only two).  You can mix it up by having the first round be with one set of partners and then either rotate partners in a given pattern or collect into larger groups to explain what the first group thought.  People can be encouraged to report out to the whole class or a board can be used for individuals to put their thoughts.

Other ideas and the related perspectives include:
https://busyteacher.org/22219-getting-students-out-of-seats.html

https://teaching.berkeley.edu/active-learning-strategies

https://www.steelcase.com/research/articles/topics/active-learning/class-can-i-have-your-attention/

An internet search on the term "active learning strategies" will turn up much good material.  Don't do all these things at once, but do take the observation seriously that you need to enforce no phones and get students more involved in their own learning in the classroom.